There is more evidence that card less ATMs are starting to receive more attention. A recent article in Forbes discusses how FIS and Paydiant (not a part of PayPal, don’t forget) are driving much of the growth:

Twenty-eight banks and over 2,000 ATMs are live with the cleverly named Cardless Cash, said Chris Gardiner, chief product officer of PayPal’s Paydiant team. ATMs can be upgraded to work with Cardless Cash by pushing software to them over their network — it doesn’t require sending out a truck and technician. FIS is enabling the more than 80,000 ATMs it operates and expanding to more ATMs connected through FIS’s NYCE network.

There are some nice security features to card less ATM transactions. Establishing the amount to be withdrawn is accomplished through a bank’s mobile banking app, so cardholder authentication is managed. The phones themselves are of course password or biometrically secured and without a card, data can’t be stolen through skimmers. But will the anticipated decrease in fraud losses that the better security should provide, plus a faster transaction be enough to convince financial institutions and their cardholders that this is a must-have technology and should be expanded beyond a test-and-learn phase? One add on feature that may be convincing and help to make the business case is the capability for cardholders to queue up cash for another individual. Here’s how this would work:

Coming sometime in the future will be the ability to send the code to a friend or family member so they can withdraw cash from your account through a convenient ATM — a good way to provide emergency funds to a student away at university.

This is a particularly interesting use case for PayPal with its millions of Venmo and otherwise branded P2P applications that could now offer the opportunity for the recipient to be paid at an ATM. And at least for now, we do still love cash.

Overview by Sarah Grotta, Director, Debit Advisory Service at Mercator Advisory Group